[Patricia Jung] > The people who write the best code I know write documentation > alongside or even before coding: The code has to follow > documentation, otherwise it's a bug :)
So, back in context of the current discussion ... we're not talking about coders who write documentation, we're talking about documenters and coders being different people. Thus you're really talking about shifting the design of the program from the coders to the documenters. I guess the documenters write up how the program will behave, what it will look like, then the coders make it happen. In the commercial world those documenters are called Marketing and the coders hate it when Marketing meddles with the requirements. (: Do documenters, in general, have a good sense of what is practical to design and what is not, and what makes a good UI - all before any code appears? Occasionally I interact with someone who can't code, but who can describe a neat idea for a program in enough detail, and with enough insight into good UI design, that I can actually realise it the way they envisioned and not need to improve the design along the way. This is a joy when it happens, but it's pretty rare. Usually, the design falls to me, either because the design I was given is not practical or optimal, or because I wasn't given any UI specifics at all. So, pardon my skepticism - maybe people who are good at designing programs from scratch (and describing the design clearly enough to afford implementation) but can't write them are common. I just haven't run into a lot of them.
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